Pakistan yesterday proposed a UN probe into two attacks across the Line of Control (LoC) over the past few days and called for insulating the progress in bilateral ties from negative propaganda.

“Pakistan is prepared to hold investigations through the United Nations Military Observers Group for India and Pakistan (UNMOGIP) on the recent ceasefire violations on the LoC,” Foreign Office spokesman Moazzam Khan said.

After a cross-border raid on a Pakistani outpost by Indian troops in Haji Pir Sector on Sunday, India claimed on Tuesday an attack on its army patrol 100 metres from the LoC in the Poonch sector, which it blamed on Pakistani forces.

Pakistan has rejected the Indian allegations as “baseless and unfounded”.

The UNMOGIP, one of the oldest UN missions, has been here since 1949 for observance of the ceasefire.

India and Pakistan disagreed in the past over UNMOGIP’s mandate, but the UN secretary general had overruled India’s reservations saying its mandate could only be terminated by the Security Council.

Pakistan has continued to lodge complaints with the UNMOGIP about ceasefire violations, but India has not presented any complaint of ceasefire violation to the UN mission since January 1972. India continues to provide accommodation, transport and other facilities to the UNMOGIP, but it has restricted its activities.

“Pakistan remains committed to the ceasefire agreement of 2003 which is an important confidence-building measure and should be respected in letter and spirit. Pakistan also urges the need for abiding and strengthening military mechanisms to ensure that there is no recurrence of such violations in future,” the FO spokesman said.

“It is important that both sides make serious efforts in maintaining this improvement and avoid negative propaganda,” he added.

The Director General, Military Operations, Major Gen Ashfaq Nadeem, spoke to his Indian counterpart Lt-Gen Vinod Bhatia over hotline and rejected Indian allegations of an attack on a military patrol that resulted in deaths of two Indian soldiers.

“Indian authorities were informed that Pakistan has carried out ground verification and checked and found nothing of this sort happened as being alleged by India,” a military official said.